Hot Music Lights Up West Bloomfield's Marshbank Park

West Bloomfield Township Parks and Recreation summer concert series opens July 10 with six of the Detroit area's most talented female vocalists. 

Motor City Women and Detroit Express will perform July 10, at Marshbank Park, 2805 Hiller Road. The event kicks off Hot Nights, Hot Music, a free concert series that runs Wednesday nights through Aug. 7. 

Vocalists Valerie Barrymore, Stacia Petrie-Ford, Lady T, Elena Papillo, Aja Sardis, Cheryl Lescom and Terrie Lea, backed by guitarist Dennis Burr, bassist Rick Zeldes, and drummer Stephen Kohn, perform a variety of styles from blues and funk to country and pop. The band has taken home Detroit Music Awards for Outstanding Live Performance, Outstanding Blues/R&B Recording, Outstanding Blues R&B/Instrumentalist, and Outstanding R&B Artist/Group.

The concert venue is also an award-winner. The township in March received the Great Lakes Park, Facility and Recreation Program Award, and last year accepted the Michigan Recreation and Parks Association's Park Design Award for the Marshbank Park renovation project, completed in 2010. 

Concerts start at 7 p.m. Other artists featured during the series include:

• July 17 The Lash
• July 24 The Bomb Squad
• July 31 String of Ponies
• Aug. 7 Persuasion Band